Zuckerman et al. (1978) reported national comparisons and sex and age differences on the total score and the four subscales of the recently constructed Sensation Seeking Scale, Form V (SSS). The samples showed clear sex differences and a strong decline with age. Sex differences were seen to reflect different kinds of socialization and the age decline was thought to be associated with biological processes.Australian data were collected from 335 females and 363 males, distributed over the age range 17-60 years. Overall, males showed higher SSS scores than females, replicating Canadian, American and English data. Thrill and adventure seeking scores showed this difference most clearly. However, the total SSS scores displayed a significant sex by age interaction, a result differing most markedly from previously published findings, with females in the 3&39 age group recording higher scores than males. The experience seeking (ES) results were particularly different from English data, displaying a significant sex by age interaction. Whereas males showed a decline over age on ES, females reported increasing ES behaviours until the fall towards male levels in the U 9 age group. The elevation in ES by the younger female groups, accompanied by dips in the linear trends for disinhibition and boredom susceptibility scores for males at the 3&39-year level, contributed to the major sex by age interaction in total SSS scores. Scale reliabilities were generally higher than those reported by Ridgeway & Russell (1980). The evidence strongly indicated the wisdom of control for age in research on sensation seeking.
The factorial properties across sex of Zuckerman's (1977) Sensation-Seeking Scale, Form V, were examined in a sample of 335 female and 363 male Australian subjects. A four-factor solution was applied to the data of both sex groups to test the correspondence with Zuckerman's postulated four distinct dimensions of sensation seeking. The results generally support the existence of the four dimensions; however, the percentage of total variance accounted for is only 33% for females and 31% for males. No additional factor accounted for more than 4% of total variance. The factor structures of the male and female samples were compared and were found to be very similar. Attention is drawn to items that do not load significantly on the expected factor, multifactorial items, and items with loadings that suggest sex differences in the connotations of item content.Factorial similarity between British and American samples of males and females was the basis of the construction of Form V of the Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS; Zuckerman, Eysenck, & Eysenck, 1978). The new form snowed generally good cross-national and cross-sex correspondence of its four subscales, although Ridgeway and Russell (1980), with a Canadian sample, have questioned the psychological equivalence of the subscales across sex. Each subscale contains 10 items selected to represent a distinct dimension of sensation seeking. The subscales are Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Experience Seeking, Disinhibition, and Boredom Susceptibility. The replicability of Boredom Susceptibility is weak relative to the other subscales. There is no published examination of the stability of the subscale structure in another English-speaking culture and across the sexes.
MethodThe present study examines the degree of factorial invariance across sex of the SSS Form V, using 335 female and 363 male Australian subjects. The subjects represented a wide range of occupational and educational categories Requests for reprints should be sent to
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